1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to ceiling structures of a passenger room of a motor vehicle, and more particularly to the ceiling structures of a type which is incorporated with a sun roof construction of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, some passenger motor vehicles are equipped with a so-called "sun roof structure" which has a sun roof lid which can be slid or lifted open with respect to a sun roof opening formed in a roof panel of the vehicle. In the vehicles of this type, it is necessary to provide a ceiling board of a passenger room with an opening at a portion facing the sun roof opening of the roof panel. For fixing an edge portion of the ceiling board, by which the opening of the board is bounded, to given fixed members of the vehicle, various measures have been hitherto proposed and put into practical use.
In the following, one of the conventional measures will be outlined with reference to FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings in order to clarify the task of the present invention.
Referring to the drawing which is a sectional, but partial, view taken from a direction parallel with a longitudinal axis of the associated vehicle, there is shown a conventional arrangement of a ceiling structure which is incorporated with a sun roof construction of a motor vehicle.
Designated by numeral 1 is a roof panel of the vehicle, which has a rectangular opening 1a formed therethrough. Slidably supported by the roof panel to open and close the rectangular opening 1a is a sun roof lid 4 which is constructed of a transparent material, such as glass panel, plastic panel or the like. The sun roof lid 4 has at its lateral sides respective sliders 3 which are slidably engaged with respective guide rails 2. Each guide rail 2 is secured to a fixed member of the vehicle and extends along the side edge of the opening 1a. The sun roof lid 4 is thus slidable forward to close the opening 1a and rearward to open the same.
Designated by numeral 5 is a ceiling board which is arranged below the roof panel 1 to constitute a ceiling of a passenger room P. The ceiling board 5 comprises a plastic base 6 and an outer decorative layer 7 bonded to the plastic base 6. As is understood from the drawing, the ceiling board 5 has a rectangular opening 5a which faces the opening 1a the sun roof construction. The edge portion 5b of the ceiling board 5, which bounds the opening 5a, is connected to a flange portion 2a of the guide rail 2 by means of a tubular holder or welt 8. Although not shown in the drawing, suitable known connectors are employed for tightly attaching the ceiling board 5 to the inner surface of the roof panel 1.
However, due to its inherency in construction, the above-mentioned ceiling structure has the following drawbacks.
First, because the gripping property of the tubular holder 8 is poor, it tends to occur that the ceiling board 5 is disconnected from the flange portion 2a of the guide rail 2.
Second, because of usage of the tubular holder 8, an unsightly groove 9 is inevitably produced on the edge portion 5b of the ceiling board 5, which extends along the tubular holder 8 as shown in the drawing. The groove 9 deteriorates the external appearance of the ceiling board 5.
Third, since the tubular holder 8 is exposed to the passenger room, the internal appearance of the room is considerably deteriorated.